Surprise! This isn't as long as a normal chapter, but I do love an epilogue so here you go. Once again, I want to say a massive thank you for all the encouragement and support I have gotten from the VA family, this story is for you, and without you, it wouldn't exist, so enjoy Rose and Dimitri's last appearance in The Dreaded Age.
3 months later
"We have to be quick," I gasped as Dimitri raked his fingers down the small of my back, sending a shiver through my body.
"Watch just how quick I can be," he growled, nipping the side of my neck gently with his teeth and lifting me up so that I was straddling his hips.
He walked forwards, pushing me against the wall, old cleaning supplies cluttering to the floor as we knocked them from their place.
"Shit," he swore, glancing to the shut door.
Silence.
"We're fine," I whispered, moving my hips sensuously against him, feeling his growing bulge pushing into me.
In one swift move, he hoisted my dress up to my waist, thank god for the flowing skirt, and slipped his fingers underneath my underwear, pressing into my hot, wet core.
I couldn't keep the moan from escaping my lips.
Capturing my mouth in his, Dimitri swallowed up my mewls as his clever fingers worked their magic, bringing me so close I felt like I would fly away. Just as my release was starting to wash over me, he pulled his hand away, licking each finger carefully whilst holding my gaze.
I seemed to always be a quivering mess around this man, but I didn't even know my name right now.
He gently lifted my limp body with one arm whilst he tugged down his trousers, before sinking me back down onto him, once again swallowing my groans with his kiss.
"This is where I want to be forever, Roza," he growled.
"In the store cupboard in the palace?" I questioned, confusing momentarily filling my features.
"No. Inside you".
His Russian accent heavily laced each word, it always got stronger when he felt passionate about something. That, or when he had been drinking. But this was all passion.
Dimitri's thrusts were strong and powerful, and after the build-up of his fingers, I felt ready to explode.
"Come for me Roza," Dimitri growled, nipping the lobe of my ear as he increased his pace.
I exploded, my release bringing stars to my eyes and a few moments later I heard the growl that always came when Dimitri finished. Resting my head on his shoulder, Dimitri pressed his arms against the wall, leaning on it and breathing heavily.
"Good?" he panted.
"Good," I panted back, still trying to shake the stars from my vision, words feeling foreign in my mouth.
After a few more moments our breathing had calmed and Dimitri gently lifted me back down, handing me a tissue with a wry smile. I rolled my eyes.
"Where the hell have you two been?" Lissa spat, the curse sounding strange coming from her serene mouth.
"I...," I stuttered, glancing at Dimitri who had turned red next to me.
"You know what," she interrupted, "I don't even want to know. Nearly everyone has arrived".
"Hey, you have to be late to your own party," I joked, but the exacerbated look she gave me told me that my joke had fallen short.
"It's not funny! I've been stuck with Vasily's great-aunt for at least 10-minutes and your father has already asked me to dance twice!"
A laugh escaped from my lips and I quickly smothered it with my hand.
"You said you wanted to be my maid-of-honour, well, it's all part of your job!"
She grumbled, but I knew she was happy to have a role, especially as she wasn't able to attend the actual ceremony.
"Anyway, speaking of dear-old dad, we'd better go and see him," I said, looking to Dimitri who had gone a strange shade of white.
"Get a grip comrade," I joked, nudging him with my shoulder. "We'll have to go to all the family dinners now, you are one of the family! Think of all the free favours if nothing else!"
If anything, he seemed to go a paler shade of white.
"Come on," I groaned, linking my arm through his and dragging him into the people who stood around chatting.
Abe, as usual, was flirting with two women at once, taking it in turn to graze their arms and meet their eyes. Honestly, what these women ever saw in him I didn't know. Although I supposed he had a sort of 'roguish charm' that would be very different to the usual types of men these women interacted with.
"As much as I hate to interrupt," I said, stepping forward and gently resting my hand on Abe's arm, "I must steel him away for a few moments."
The women looked displeased as they filtered off into the room to talk with other people, but Abe seemed to throw me a grateful look.
"Honestly, I should have never allowed plus one's," I groaned, nodding towards the retreating figures. "I've never met them in my life".
"Daphne and Louise," Abe said. "Sisters"
"Oh," I said. Dimitri looked as if he wanted strigoi to storm the building. Knowing how similar we were, I imagined he would be more comfortable fighting them than talking to all the people who had come today. He had never liked big social events, especially if they were in celebration of him.
"My congratulations," my father said, giving a graceful nod to Dimitri and a hand squeeze to me. "Whilst it's a shame I wasn't able to attend the wedding or provide funds to make it the wedding of the year, I understand why you did it".
A haunted look crossed over his features, and I imagined he was thinking of my mother and how he wished they had done things differently. Since she had died a few years ago, Abe was like a changed man. He still flirted, sure, I think that was just part of his personality, but he didn't flirt with the hopes of getting somewhere anymore. He always managed to excuse himself if anything got serious, and I knew with certainty that he had not even visited a woman, not that I liked knowing about my dad's sex life.
I gave him a gentle squeeze on the arm and he seemed to shake himself out of it, even if the pain didn't leave his eyes.
"Anyway, son," my dad said, turning and addressing Dimitri, "perhaps we should take another hunting trip soon?"
Horror filled Dimitri's face. I had never been able to get the events of the last hunting trip out of him, and I figured it was because he wanted to try and forget all about them.
"I would love to, sir," Dimitri replied politely, "but my new position at work doesn't allow me any time for things like that".
"Nonsense," pushed Abe. "I'll see what strings I can pull".
Dimitri flashed Abe a pained smile.
"Go and socialise," Abe said to me. "I'm going to take a walk around the room".
I nodded and turned to Dimitri as my father walked away.
"Not too bad?"
"Worse than ever," Dimitri groaned and I couldn't help but laugh at the morose expression on his face.
"I can't believe he actually managed it," said a deep voice from behind us, a voice that I knew very well.
"Adrian!" I squealed, spinning around and launching myself into his arms. After a few moments, I pulled back and looked up at his face, grinning wildly. "And what do you mean he's managed it," I teased, stepping away.
"I honestly doubted that Belikov would ever get you down the aisle," Adrian teased. The expression on Dimitri's face showed that he had agreed with Adrian.
"Belikov!" came a should from further within the crowd of well-dressed people. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw a dhampir in a black suit trying to push through the people towards us.
"Go," I said to Dimitri, who seemed to be caught between staying with me and going to rescue the man. "Go chat with him, I'll catch up with you in a bit".
With a smile and a kiss on my forehead, Dimitri left Adrian and me alone.
Looking back to Adrian, I could see confusion on his face as he studied the glass in my hand, then his own, then the people around us, and I knew a tricky question was coming my way.
"Are you drinking?" he asked slowly, green eyes piercing into my skin.
"Yep..." I replied suspiciously. I was drinking after all. Just not alcohol.
"Are you drinking alcohol," Adrian rephrased, giving me a look that I recognised all too well.
"Er, no," I admitted. I couldn't lie to Adrian, we had been through too much, and I trusted him with my life.
"Why aren't you drinking?" he asked, eyes staring at me shrewdly. "Are you..."
"No," I hissed, cutting him off before he could say the word and alert everyone around us. "I'm not."
"Then why aren't you drinking?" he asked, confusion filling his features once again.
I rolled my eyes. No one, not even Lissa, pried this much.
"We're trying, ok?" I said, moving closer to him so that I could whisper without any of the vampire ears around us picking up on the words. "We agreed to try a few months back when we married".
A huge grin filled Adrians pretty face.
"Oh Rose!" he exclaimed, pulling me into a bear hug and making people around us turn to look.
"He's just happy about the wedding," I assured people, pulling away and waiting until they had turned back to their own conversations before I began speaking again.
"Nobody knows, not even Lissa," I told Adrian. "She'd make me stop guarding and I don't need to do that until it has actually happened."
Adrian nodded and smiled. "Your secret is safe with me, it took Syd and me a few months before she got pregnant with our first, I know what it's like trying. I bet Belikov is rather enjoying himself at the moment".
"I am not talking about my sex life with you," I groaned smacking him on the arm. "Speaking of Sydney, where is she?"
"Last I saw, she was trying to convince Declan that he did need to wear a tie and that he wasn't allowed to take it off. He's getting to the grumpy, hormone-fuelled stage and can be a handful".
"You'd better go and help her then," I said, feeling a flood of warmth as I saw the love shine in Adrian's eyes as he talked about his son. I couldn't wait to see that in Dimitri's eyes.
After speaking to what felt like 100 people, I headed out of the hall to the private balcony that had been kept out of bounds. Thankfully, I had chosen all of the guardians on shift here so I had no doubt I would be allowed out.
After a quick conversation, I stepped through the heavy curtain closing the balcony off to the masses of people in the hall, and I felt the cool summer airbrush over my skin as my heels clipped on the stone. Walking forwards, I leant onto the cool stone balcony as I studied the world down below. The darkness wrapped around me like a comforting blanket as I breathed in the cool air deep into my lungs, watching people scurry below.
A warm hand rested against the small of my back, and Dimitri pulled me into his firm body.
"I saw you sneak out here".
"It's beautiful isn't it," I whispered.
"Out here? Yeah, it's great".
"No," I said, cuddling further into him. "Not out here, our life. Our life is beautiful".
"Yes Roza," Dimitri said, his voice deep and filled with love. "Our life is beautiful".
"We have been so lucky".
"Well, we have had a fair few unlucky things happen to us," Dimitri challenged.
"No," I said, turning to look at him. "They were beautiful too. If you hadn't been turned, we wouldn't be trying for a baby. If we hadn't broken up, we wouldn't have learnt how to truly function as a couple. If I hadn't been attacked, I wouldn't have seen how much you loved me. If the battle hadn't happened, we wouldn't be married".
"You're right," Dimitri whispered. "I have always believed that everything happened for a reason, and you are that reason. Everything in my life has been building up to this moment. To being here, with you."
"And now we get to live," I said, nestling my head into his chest.
"And now we get to live," he echoed, the deep rumble of his voice soothing me more than anything else could as I stared off into the darkness, endless possibilities of our life running through my head.
Because it wasn't my life, it wasn't his life, it wasn't even our lives. It was our life. We shared our existence, our love, our joy, our strength. Without the other, we were lost, we had no life. The 10 years apart had clearly shown us that. We were nothing without each other.
And so it would always be our life. One life to share, to feel joy and passion and heartache and loss and everything that proved that we were living. Living our life together.
Our life.